| Prepare at least two drafts of a written response to a question related to the material. You will be evaluated using the following critical thinking standards • Clarity: What do you mean? • Relevance: How is this related to that? • Accuracy: Is that true?How do you know?According to whom? • Precision: For example? What specifically do you mean? • Logic: Does this follow from that?Does this make sense? • Breadth: Is there another way to look at this? How would this look from a ___ perspective? • Depth: What makes this difficult? What makes this complicated? • Significance: Is that the most important point? • Fairness: What’s your angle? Where is your interest in this? Are you being fair to X? * These Questions will require you to explore additional material beyond what you find in the textbook. Each response must be typed and annotated according to the standards outlined either by the Modern Language Association or the Chicago Manual of Style. Directions: Please respond to one of the following essay prompts. Your response must be about 1000 words in length, and must adhere to a standard manuscript form. Be sure to support your argument with specific references to primary or secondary sources. 1. Four key elements must be coordinated in order for any campaign to be successful: the Message, the Machine, the Media, and Money. In Texas, these elements must be reconciled with the prevailing political culture of Traditionalism and Individualism. Has the rise of Interactive Social Media affected the way in which campaigns are conducted in Texas? Has campaigning become easier? More difficult? More expensive? Less expensive? Please explain your answer. Sources to consider: * Jacobson, Gary C. “The effects of campaign spending in House elections: New evidence for old arguments.” American Journal of Political Science (1990): 334-362. * Scott, David Meerman. The new rules of marketing and PR: how to use social media, blogs, news releases, online video, and viral marketing to reach buyers directly. Wiley. com, 2009. * Shirky, Clay. “The Political Power of Social Media: Technology, the public sphere and political change.” Foreign Affairs, Vol. 90. (2011) * Tumasjan, Sprenger, Sandner & Welpe. “Predicting Elections with Twitter: What 140 Characters Reveal about Political Sentiment.” Proceedings of the Fourth International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media, May 23-26, 2010. Link to this Source 2. Critics of recently passed Voter ID laws in various states argue that these measures are designed to limit citizen access to the ballot. However, proponents of these laws argue that such measures prevent fraudulent voting. Furthermore, except in General Elections during Leap Year, in which voters indirectly determine the outcome of presidential contests, voters appear generally to avoid casting ballots at all. To what degree do Voter ID laws actually impact voter turnout? In what way? Sources to consider: * Davidson, Chandler. “The Historical Context of Voter Photo-ID Laws.” PS: Political Science & Politics. Vol. 42, Issue 1 (Jan 2009) * Mycoff, Wagner & Wilson. “The Empirical Effects of Voter-ID Laws: Present or Absent?” PS: Political Science & Politics. Vol. 42, Issue 1 (Jan 2009) * Panagopoulos, Costas. “Voter Turnout in the 2010 Congressional Midterm Elections” PS: Political Science & Politics. Vol. 44, Issue 2 (Apr 2011) 3. Currently, Texas electoral law provides for a Direct Primary Election with a set of party conventions shortly following it. A recently proposed change in Texas electoral law would eliminate the Precinct Convention for state political parties. What impact would this have on the election process in Texas? Is this change warranted? Why or why not? Sources to consider: * Bruce, John M. “Texas: The Emergence of the Christian Right.” God at the grass roots: the Christian right in the 1994 elections (1995): 67. * Sui, Danile Z., and Peter J. Hugill. “A GIS-based spatial analysis on neighborhood effects and voter turn-out:: a case study in College Station, Texas.” Political Geography 21, no. 2 (2002): 159-173. * Taebel, Delbert A., Richard L. Engstrom, and Richard L. Cole. “Alternative Electoral Systems as Remedies for Minority Vote Dilution.” Hamline J. Pub. L. & Pol’y 11 (1990): 19. |
